In order to drill holes into an overhead ceiling or other overhead structure, an installer must necessarily elevate his or her body to access the ceiling. This is typically accomplished by the installer using a ladder, stilts, or scaffolding, with an electric drill and other tools in tow. Once elevated, the installer uses the electric drill to drill one or more holes into the ceiling. The installer then pounds a fastener (e.g., a concrete anchor) into the hole, which generally requires the use of two hands. All of this activity requires the elevation of the installer, his or her drilling equipment and his or her fastening accessories.
From a production perspective, conducting this activity in such a fashion consumes precious production time for the installer, which requires the installer to get into position to drill the hole or holes, to properly drill the hole or holes and to then insert and secure the fasteners as needed. This process is repeated for each hole and each hole may or may not be located in close proximity to the other hole or holes. Certainly, even where a number of holes can be drilled into one area of the ceiling, a next adjacent set of accessible holes may likely require the installer to repeatedly move and relocate to another ceiling area until all holes are drilled and all fasteners are secured, as may be desired or required for a particular installation. In short, this method of drilling holes and installing ceiling mounted items is not desirable for the reasons stated.
Accordingly, it is desirable to have an overhead drilling apparatus that simplifies the process of drilling ceiling holes and reduces the number of steps needed to install ceiling mounted items. It is further desirable to have such a drilling apparatus that is easy to use and reduces installer fatigue.